The boys started for the cabin.  They had not taken five steps before, with a sudden lurch, the airship dived like a kite without its tail.  Then the craft turned completely over!

Jack and Mark with the two helpers and Dirola were thrown from the deck, head first, toward the earth!  Down and down they fell, uttering despairing cries!

CHAPTER XXI

LOST IN THE SNOW

Once more the wind blew with hurricane force.  On board the Monarch Washington and Professor Henderson were tossed to the ceiling again.  Then the ship righted herself.

“De boys!  De boys!” cried Washington, suddenly thinking of them.  “Dey hab falled off!”

“Great Scott!  So they have!” exclaimed the inventor.  “That is, unless they grabbed something as we went over!”

“An de Sesquitomexico woman, too!” cried the colored man, meaning Dirola.

“I guess she went with the others,” said the professor.  “We must take a look as soon as it is safe.”

Then came a strong gust of wind that hurled the ship forward.  When it had subsided Washington and the old inventor ventured outside.  The boys were nowhere to be seen.

“They are lost!” cried Andy, who had crawled to the bow of the ship after the captain and Washington.

For a little while longer the airship sailed along easily, the wind no more rushing with such force.  Then, all at once the craft settled down until, with a jerk, it came to rest on a big snow bank.

“We’s landed!” exclaimed Washington.  “We’s hit de ole north pole at last.  Now I’ll see what sort ob a stick it is!”

“We’ve landed sure enough,” remarked the professor, “but I’m afraid we are not at the north pole.  However, in view of all that has happened, I suppose we had better stop here for a while.  Some of the machinery is wrecked by the overturning of the ship, but I guess we can fix it.  I only wish I knew where the boys and the two men were.”

“Don’t forget Dirola,” spoke up Andy.  “We owe a good deal to her.”

It stopped snowing about half an hour after the Monarch had found lodgement on the edge of a bank of ice.  From the deck and windows of the craft nothing could be seen but a big expanse of white.  It was a cold, lifeless world to which the ship had brought what remained of her crew and owner.

The engine room of the Monarch was once more a sorry sight, and Washington and the inventor worked like a dozen men in restoring order.  They soon had things in ship-shape, but one of the motors would require considerable repairing before it would run again.  However, it was not the most important one, and the craft could run without it, though only at half speed.

Suddenly, there came from without a chorus of shouts.

“What’s that?” cried the professor.

“Sounded like some one calling,” ventured Andy.